MIT physicist Mavalvala delivers Habib University Yohsin Lecture

Karachi: Dr. Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the School of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, delivered Habib University’s 10th Yohsin Lecture on Sunday, closing a two-day visit that packed the university auditorium with students, faculty, alumni, industry leaders and members of Pakistan’s scientific community. The News identified her as a Pakistani-American astrophysicist.

Her lecture, “The Joy of Discovery: Curiosity, Science, and the Pivotal Role of Universities,” examined why people pursue knowledge that has no obvious use. Mavalvala argued that some of the most consequential discoveries began as questions without a clear payoff, and that universities carry a responsibility beyond training professionals: to cultivate wonder, creativity, perseverance and intellectual freedom.

“Even pre-human cultures were looking up at the sky, in part because it was just mysterious,” she said. “A hundred years from now the only thing that will matter is that we’ve opened a new window into the universe.”

She connected research opportunity to public policy, saying every person is born research-minded and that only access to opportunity separates those who continue from those who do not. “Research has shown there is no investment that any government does that has greater return than investment in research and science,” she said.

Habib University President Wasif Rizvi thanked the donors, or Mohsineen, who made the institution possible, and said this kind of access had not been attempted in Pakistan before. “It exists because the community in this room and outside decided that it should,” Rizvi said. “The students in this hall are the answer to anyone who asks what it is that philanthropy can do.”

The lecture capped two days of engagement: Mavalvala toured the campus, met faculty, held discussions with students and alumni, and joined sessions with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Pakistan’s scientific community. Habib University said the tenth edition was among the most attended in the series’ history. Previous speakers include Noam Chomsky, Ashis Nandy and Reza Aslan.